Just wanted to pop in quickly from the madness and note: 2 weeks ago I experienced another night of restless tossing and turning. The next day I met with friends for tea and we all ended up discussing sleep problems and the old "counting sheep" remedy, which we all had problems with (my sheep tend to jump backwards over the fence, mock me, huddle in groups and basically undermine the purpose of the counting sheep exercise.) My friend suggested an alternate method she uses: rather than counting something she just focuses on her breath, and when her mind wanders she says she doesn't get upset or try to start over with counting anything but she just gently calls her mind back to the breath "like a little puppy" that's wandered off. I thought that was a pleasant image, so since then I've been practicing that a bit when I go to sleep and using the little puppy metaphor to gently corral my attention back in place. So far, I've been getting to sleep well, although that could be a combination of factors (remember, I don't believe in a magic pill.) But I think this is definitely a helpful tool to be added to the box. So many thanks, Ariel! (who probably is not one of the 3 people who reads this blog, so I'll have to thank her directly.)
This blog will not be seeing much action for the next few weeks at least; for reasons why, see my midwest adventure blog.
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